Every Rose Has Its Thorn
by Nightcrawlerlover
Summary: AU oneshot. Yami Bakura stops at the bar called Nights, and chats with Xander, and then comforts Faith after hearing about her childhood.


**Hey there! Here's a new chapter for the story called **Tales from the barman... Part II**, which is on the site Twisting the Hellmouth, which I think is awesome, and very cool. The reason why I titled it "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" (after the song with the same name by Poison) is because I can see the character of Yami Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh as kind of like a rose – he's handsome, but the girls (and guys) keep getting pricked by his thorns.**

**Plus, one of Faith's lines in here is from the Season 3 episode "Enemies", and it speaks volumes about her childhood. **

**Disclaimer: Genius Joss Whedon owns Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Kazuki Takahashi (also a genius) owns Yu-Gi-Oh. I own the fanfics I often cook up from time to time. **

Every Rose Has Its Thorn

Xander was busy wiping down the mahogany surface of the bar with a clean, white rag when the door opened and the guy walked in, thus putting an end to all the chit-chattering and discussion that had ever taken place inside its humble walls.

Everyone, even Xander, stared at the young man as he made his way down the aisle of the bar, just casually taking his time.

He had spiky hair the color of white lightning on a stormy night, and his eyes were the color of dark chocolate.

He was wearing a blue and white striped shirt, blue Levis, and black and white striped shoes. The main piece was a black trenchcoat that covered his shirt and swished around his ankles. Around his neck was what looked like a ring which looked to be kind of a circle, but inside the circle was a triangle that had what looked like a weird eye on it. Attached to the circle were some gold spikey things. He wore this item on a brown rope around his neck.

Xander noticed that the guy's eyes had an intense look in them – something he knew about all too well. After all, he had, when growing up, seen the look all too often in the eyes of his father, Anthony "Tony" Harris, especially when his "beloved daddy dearest" was drunk.

Bitter and neglectful – those were the perfect words to describe his father in a nutshell. He knew.

"Hey there, Xander."

Xander's heart almost gave a leap. It was the guy he had been looking at. He was sitting on one of the bar stools, and simply smirking, as though he had a secret he wanted to share. Maybe he did.

"Hey there," replied Xander. Then he raised an eyebrow. "Who are you, man?"

Smirking still, the guy simply said, his tone all casual,

"Please, call me Yami Bakura."

Xander blinked. Never in his whole life had he met someone like this guy with the white, spiky hair and the black trenchcoat. Not even once when he had lived in Sunnydale, now a tourist site for geologists.

"Really?"

Yami Bakura nodded.

"And I believe that ‛yami' means ‛dark' in Japanese. Am I correct?"

Yami Bakura nodded a second time, and then said, "That is correct. And besides, a man such as yourself, Xander, is definitely headed for bigger and better things. I can tell simply because I can sense things like that."

"Wow," Xander replied. "And you can also sense that – all out of all the members of the Scooby Gang – I'm the one who sees everything, even though nobody knows it?"

For the third time, Yami Bakura nodded in agreement. "Of course I do. After all, I can see that in you as well. You have a penchant for making a joke in a situation that's supposed to be serious, or when someone makes what was intended to be a dramatic statement.

"You also frequently made quips about school, your family, and your romantic life," he went on. "In the case of the former two, this could simply be a cover of your dislike for both. But deep down, you are scared of failing your friends as well as not making something of yourself.

"Well, I don't see you failing with being a bartender here; you're a natural when it comes to doing that," Yami Bakura concluded, looking around the bar, "I can see that you don't have to worry about **that **anymore."

Xander was quite surprised at how Yami Bakura just knew all that. _How did he know all that without me telling him? _

As though reading his thoughts, Yami Bakura turned back to Xander and smiled. "It's quite simple, Xander. You see my Millennium Ring?"

Xander nodded. He had heard about the seven Millennium Items, and that they held very powerful magic. And speaking of which, he knew all about that, having seen Willow, his friend since kindergarten, use magic for quite some time; she had gotten pretty good at it, too.

"I don't think I've seen-" Xander began, and stopped himself, as he didn't want to say too much. Thankfully, Yami Bakura filled in for him.

"I've been abroad – just got back from Siberia. It's an awesome place, and very extraordinary, too."

It was then that Faith made an appearance, and Yami Bakura turned and noticed, instantly liking what he saw. She was wearing black Levis, a brown turtleneck covered by a black leather jacket and her dark chocolate hair was now straight and very natural.

"Hmm, and speaking of a broad," he grinned, and then turned back to Xander. "Who is she?"

"That's Faith Lehane," Xander replied, and then launched into what Faith was like, how he and the Scooby Gang had first met her, and then how, after she had betrayed them, she had switched over to the side of the Mayor (who had been killed in the explosion that also destroyed Sunnydale High School during Graduation Day). Then, after leaving Sunnydale, she had come back three years later, when the First Evil had come to town (with the mysognistic, defrocked preacher Caleb as the right-hand man) to wipe out the Slayer line, but was ultimately defeated. Now, at the present moment, she was working as part of the help at Nights. Yami Bakura listened intently, hoping that the info he had gotten would help him to learn as much as he could about Faith who, Yami Bakura had heard, was called a "rogue Slayer", and for good reason.

"Xander here is absolutely right," said Faith, who had sat down on a bar stool next to Yami Bakura. "In other words, I'm kind of the epitome of, if she had gone down the other path, what could've happened to B – that's what I call Buffy for short," she explained upon seeing Yami Bakura's puzzled look.

"And I also have a secret, something that only B and Angel know, and it's about my childhood," Faith went on. She stopped, wondering if she should tell, and after seeing the look on Yami Bakura's face that said he really wanted to know, she continued with her tale.

"Well, you see, when I was a kid, I used to beg my mom for a dog. Didn't matter what kind. I just wanted, you know, something to love. A dog's all I wanted. Well, that and toys. But mom was so busy, you know, enjoying the drinking and passing out parts of life, that I never really got what I wanted."

Concerned, Yami Bakura then reached over and patted Faith on the shoulder. "I'm sorry that you had to experience that, Faith. No child should ever have to go through something like that when they're going through childhood."

Faith smiled tearfully at him, and then said, "Thanks. That means a lot to me, Yami Bakura."

"You're welcome, Faith," he replied.

Then, after a parting hug from Faith and a handshake from Xander, Yami Bakura turned to leave, and then said, "See you two around, Xander and Faith."

Faith sat for a few moments, remembering the conversation that they had shared, while Xander pulled out an ice-cold can of Coke and opened it, as he was now done cleaning the surface of the bar (and it had made him quite thirsty), and took a sip.

"Nice guy, isn't he?" said Xander. "He definitely strikes me as somebody who could've betrayed the bad guys and helped us out at the same time."

Faith nodded. "I agree, X. I fully agree with you on that one."

* * *

><p><strong>Well, I hope you liked this chapter as much as I did writing it. After all, writing is a long, slow process. It affords me so little pleasure that sometimes I wonder why I make the effort to put thoughts and words into script the way I do. <strong>**It's p****ossibly because I feel I can ****put things into perspective quite well with writing.**


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